Need help choosing practice area post-clerkship (DC biglaw lit/reg) Forum

[Anonymous User]

I am coming off a clerkship and planning to join one of the DC lit/reg usual suspects (think WH/Cov).

I've loved my clerkship work (appellate), but I'm not banking on the ability to do that as a long-term career in biglaw. I am pretty sure that my interest in non-appellate "standard" litigation is mostly confined to motions practice/purely legal issues.

Substantively, I am pretty interested in international-facing work based on my prior career, but the State Department has a monopoly on a lot of that. I have done legal work for State in the past.

I'm not quite sure how to decide what practice areas to go into. White collar seems to involve a lot of investigations/non-legal stuff. I'm not sure how much practices like CFIUS, international trade, etc. offer variety or (if they don't) open doors to jobs in L/State.

At a broader level, I'm not even sure how to talk to current attorneys (biglaw or not) about all of this and get helpful advice.

I haven't met anyone in law school with my interests/goals, I'm new to all this, and I'm not good at networking. So I am struggling a bit.

Any insight or help appreciated.

[Anonymous User]

I was in a very similar situation (coming off two clerkships) and opted not to return to one of the firms you listed.

I only know litigation and, like you, suspect I lack an interest in discovery. So I poked around some of the regulatory groups (via websites, networking, etc.) to find a good fit. But when push came to shove, I realized that it would be a giant risk to jump into a regulatory practice without a preexisting interest or knowledge base. Maybe my view is colored by the fact that I don't want to be in big law forever, but I didn't see where I'd go after being, say, a FDA or Government Contracts lawyer for three to four years. And while at the firm, there is a real chance I wouldnt enjoy the day-to-day. It struck me as a risk with glaring downsides.

So I stuck with litigation and am going to a boutique.

[CHEESEISLYFE]

Litigation - yes, dull at junior end sometimes in some firms, but relatively fine. Exit options suck. Litigation funder is an option. Boutiques are another. Takes longer to partnership than other transactional areas, but if you think you want to a partner, it's not the worst option if like writing, researching and arguing. There's a case you could make for it being the best practice area.

White collar is more niche, lots of tedious interview notes, worse exit options.

Regulatory - regulatory what exactly? Banking, funds, payments etc.? Generally it's considerably duller than litigation, but it has much better exit options if you don't want to partner. For example, you could head in-house to a PE fund or asset manager, or in-house in pretty much any other sort of company. The note from the poster above is simply wrong. In-house lawyers needs to be able to turn to do anything, and a broad based reg background is one of the most helpful practice areas to come from.

[Anonymous User]

You can find true defense-focused white collar practices at boutiques. E.g. Zuckerman. But aside from W&C not a ton of that in biglaw.

[Anonymous User]

OP here. Thanks for the feedback so far.

I’ve tried to give some more details below, but tl;dr is that I like legal research and writing, I like stuff with international focus/dimensions, the only exits I care about are government exits, and I have no interest in anything financial or transactional.

I have no interest in ever working for a company or doing anything transactional; I like law and the only exits I care about law-wise are to the government. I should have been clearer that my prior work at the federal government (in several agencies, including State) was quite interesting but has no private-sector equivalent, hence the predicament.

What I like about the law is research and writing. Prepping witnesses, doing lots of interviews, etc. does not appeal to me. Talking to friends at boutiques/DA offices/PD offices has made me more sure of that.

To the poster who asked about regulatory stuff, I have no interest in finance/money at all. So no banking, funds, SEC compliance, or anything like that. The potential exception would be regulatory practices that have international dimensions (e.g., CFIUS), although I admittedly don’t know a lot about what those practices would be/what they involve.

[Anonymous User]

You would enjoy appeals work.

[jotarokujo]

Litigation - yes, dull at junior end sometimes in some firms, but relatively fine. Exit options suck. Litigation funder is an option. Boutiques are another.

Litigation has pretty good government exits

[Anonymous User]

OP, given your preferences, is there a reason you didn't try to go the DOJ honors path? Loans and not comfortable with PSLF?

[Anonymous User]

Putting in a pitch for government contracts. I really enjoy the variety: it’s not the most heady practice area but there are plenty of opportunities to get creative. Projects are fairly short term and it’s gratifying to be able to be done with things and check things off the list. Things aren’t usually quite as explosive as CFIUS (bid protests are high pressure but nowhere near the persistence of late nights on a CFIUS deadline) and while I don’t have experience looking for exit opportunities, there’s a good mix of government and in-house work you could do. It’s not something people will be impressed by when you tell them what you do, but for decent stability and balance, I think it’s a really good place to be. And Covington has a great govk practice group.

[Anonymous User]

You would enjoy appeals work.

Yeah it sounds like you just want to be in an appellate group. If the firm you’re going to doesn’t have a discrete one (or you don’t have an offer for it), just go in as lit and email appellate partners to get coffee and try to get work with them and go from there.

[Anonymous User]

OP, given your preferences, is there a reason you didn't try to go the DOJ honors path? Loans and not comfortable with PSLF?

No loans, but the decision was partly financial. The office/agency I would be interested in also doesn’t have a consistent honors program, so there was a tactical decision to at least get a well-respected job so that I have the ability to wait until the office has openings, assuming I want to go that route.

[Anonymous User]

You would enjoy appeals work.

Yeah it sounds like you just want to be in an appellate group. If the firm you’re going to doesn’t have a discrete one (or you don’t have an offer for it), just go in as lit and email appellate partners to get coffee and try to get work with them and go from there.

OP here—thanks. I have the ability to pick groups (no guarantee that I will get my top choice). I have a decent number of solid connections in the appellate groups at other firms I wouldn’t mind working it that also have large appellate practices, so I guess I can see how things pan out but be ready to lateral if group selection or whatever goes way south.

[Anonymous User]

I would recommend international trade! Fun practice area with a lot of government exit opportunities, plus a few in-house ones

[Anonymous User]

I’m not sure what you mean by “the State Department has a monopoly on” international work. To state the obvious, L plays no role in private practice and only represents State itself, while also advising the interagency. Private firms are responsible for a range of public and private international law disputes, including representing foreign states or international organizations and their officials and instrumentalities in U.S. courts and foreign tribunals, ATA/ATS/other extraterritorial actions against corporates, acting for companies in international commercial arbitration, investment arbitration, and transnational disputes, litigating 1782s (a burgeoning international practice), jurisdictional disputes, and lots more. Even within the federal government, L is only one part of the interagency with international law expertise — there’s lots of international law being practiced at DOD GC, OFL and OIA at DOJ, Treasury Office of International Affairs, ect.

If you have an offer from Wilmer or Covington and are interested in international disputes, there are key PIL folks to talk to at both firms who do all of this work.